– Too bad you can't look at yourself. Although you wouldn't know what he looked like.

– Who am I? – Ruthra asked demandingly.

– You're currently in the body of Joseph of Arimathea – that's a respected rabbi, a local oligarch.

– Woah how… at the moment? – Rutra put the emphasis on that. – Well, thank you.

– Don't thank me, you are the protagonist. You are Jesus' mentor.

Ruthra widened his eyes in amazement.

– Believe me, there are a lot of dark spots in this world, or rather in the real gospel story, a lot of things are not at all as they have come down to us through the centuries.

– I'm in a hurry to find out.

– So do I. So I'd appreciate it if we could exchange the stories we know. First, to compare them, and second, to see if everything is identical.

– Okay. What do you know?

– I told you, I take the history of my world as a basis. That's why I need to know yours, so I can look up to it.

– And what are you interested in?

– Let's start with Maria. What do you think of yours?

Now Ruthra took a deep breath, walked a couple steps in silence, answered:

– About Maria. I'll start, perhaps, from afar. Her great-grandfather was a Maccabee. He was known to be fearsome. He was very strong. When he was young, they called him the hammer, because he could crack a nut with two fingers. By the way, "Maccabeus" from the Aramaic language, in which the majority of people spoke at that time, means "hammer", as if it means a hammer on enemies. And from this it already follows: once someone in the process of liberation struggle or other battle gave the group such a name.

– It's beginning to come together," said the Rabbi with satisfaction, which caused Rutra to glare at him. – I know the subject," continued the Rabbi, "originally it was the nickname of one Judah Maccabeus of the Hasmonean dynasty, who led the rebellion against the Syrian Greeks in 166-160 BC. Later it was applied to the other sons of Mattathias, a Jewish priest of the family of Jehoiarib… then it was extended to all defenders and confessors of the faith in general during the persecution of Antiochus Epiphanes.

– Oh. I see you're familiar with the subject.

– I was in those parts at the time.

– And what brings you there?

– Same topic. We wanted to change the process in one of the systems.

– What's the process? What's the bottom line?

– The story was that 90-year-old Eleazar and the seven Maccabee brothers, their mother Solomonia, who died in torture for refusing to eat pork, which, in addition to its prohibition under the Mosaic law…

– Wait, wait," Ruthra didn't let him finish, "let's go into more detail. They were in the vanguard of the liberation struggle. Why die for a pig? You could have eaten for the struggle. For victory. But if they died, there were no fighters.

– Come on. We don't know," the rabbi said sarcastically, referring to everyone but himself, in this context Rutru.

At least, that was the manner in which the earthly Rangit, familiar to Ruthra, often delivered his speeches. So Ruthra reacted silently, realizing the logical concept of his statement. He walked five paces away, and responded to the lunge:

– Well, you know you don't know, so why ask if you do? And the earthly history was this: the Hasmonean dynasty was the leader of the Jewish revolt against the Seleucids… a revolt caused by the Syrian kings' desire to forcibly Hellenize the Jews. Now, these Hasmoneans began initially a guerrilla war against the forces of Antiochus Epiphanes. They attacked from impregnable mountain hideouts, having made a general oath to fight even on the Sabbath. The Maccabean Hasmonean dynasty came to power as a result of a religious liberation revolt of the Jews against the cultural policies of the Seleucid power. An important result of the Hasmonean-led revolt is considered to be the establishment of an independent Jewish state centered in Jerusalem and the restoration of temple worship. In honor of this event, an eight-day festival called Hanukkah, meaning "consecration," was established.